Larissa school di­vided over classes for refugee chil­dren

The prospect of refugee chil­dren at­tend­ing classes at a pri­mary school in Larissa, cen­tral Greece, as part of a na­tion­wide gov­ern­ment ini­tia­tive, has di­vided teach­ers and par­ents.

In the wake of ob­jec­tions by schoolchil­dren’s par­ents, the prin­ci­pal of the 26th Larissa Pri­mary School, Ka­te­rina Sta­gianni, said she and teach­ers at the school re­mained com­mit­ted to “of­fer­ing ad­e­quate ed­u­ca­tion to Greek and refugee chil­dren who we will soon be wel­com­ing with an open heart, arms and mind.”

Her com­ments came af­ter the head of the as­so­ci­a­tion rep­re­sent­ing the par­ents of chil­dren at the school, Ste­fanos Ha­hamis, al­legedly called on pupils to watch a video posted on his Face­book page which is said to con­tain racist ma­te­rial.

In a let­ter to Larissa’s Eleft­he­ria news­pa­per, Ha­hamis said ac­cu­sa­tions of racism and facism “do not touch us” and that par­ents re­main op­posed to the pres­ence of refugees at their chil­dren’s school.